According to My Son The Astronomer, there's a consensus that we might well be the first technological civilization in our galaxy.
There are a lot of other things to understand. One is, how vast interstellar distances are. The term "light years" is not a casual dismissal of time and space. It tells you how very far apart things are. If we could travel at 99.9% of light speed (c), it would still take four years to get to that nearest star. And travelling that fast isn't remotely possible at this point. I think My Son The Astronomer told me recently that our fastest rockets simply don't register as a percentage of light speed.
Oh, and you need to think about the cosmic radiation out there. Yeah, it's real and very dangerous. The faster you travel, the more cosmic radiation you get in that time. Most of it will kill you. Read How to Die in Space by Paul M. Sutter.
It's highly possible that interstellar travel will never be possible. Okay, so perhaps some kind of shielding against that radiation will be developed. We'll still be limited by c. We can only go so far in a human lifetime.
Don't get me wrong. I love reading novels that have us travelling throughout the galaxy at much faster than speed of light.
Those who blithely assume that there are civilizations out there vastly older than us, who have visited and continued to visit, just don't understand.
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